Chef Fights Off Robber In Gorilla Suit

A chef has told how he fought off a man in a gorilla suit trying to rob his restaurant.

Scott Sanders was taking a bag of rubbish out to the skip at the back of Jimmy's Japanese Hibachi, South Carolina, when he was punched in the face by the costumed crook.

The two exchanged blows before Sanders, 21, managed to break free and run back into the restaurant.

The man in the gorilla suit chased after him and forced his way into the kitchen where he got a nasty surprise.

“I tried to shut the door, but he pulled it open. We wrestled and I fell to the ground where I have my little knife set with my cleaver on top,” Sanders told WMBF News.

“He runs up towards the cash register, so I grab the cleaver, run right up behind him and get him right in the arm.”

The man then fled empty-handed with the meat cleaver still stuck in his arm.

“The only thing I was thinking was I’ve got to get away from this freak,” said Sanders. “This is the craziest thing that’s ever happened in my life. I’m glad it was me rather than anybody else – and I’m glad that he wasn’t armed.

The chef is now back at work, nursing a very impressive black eye. Watch his video here...

Now I don’t want to make light of his ordeal, and I would never, of course, accuse a TV reporter of exaggerating a story, or a restaurant for that matter – in fact, I'd be the last person - but in the split second that the camera zooms in on his black eye, can’t you see the faintest tinge of mascara?